1. Sexual Violence in Three Pornographic Media: Toward a Sociological Explanation
Author(s): Martin Barron and Michael Kimmel
Source: The Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 37, No. 2 (May, 2000), pp. 161-168
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
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2. Sexual Violencein Three PornographicMedia:
Towarda SociologicalExplanation
Martin Barron and Michael Kimmel
State University of New York at Stony Brook
This study measures the sexually violent content in magazine, video, and Usenet (Internetnewsgroup)pornography.
Specifically,the level of violence, the amountof consensualand nonconsensualviolence, and the gender of both victimand
A
victimizerare compared. consistentincrease in the amountof violencefrom one mediumto the next is found, althoughthe
increase betweenmagazinesand videos is not statisticallysignificant.Further,both magazinesand videos portray the viomore
lence as consensual,while the Usenetportraysit as nonconsensual.Third,magazinesportraywomenas the victimizers
than men, while the Usenet differs sharply and portrays men as the victimizers more often. A series of possible
far
often
explanationsfor thesefindings are offered,with the conclusion that the competitionamong men on the Usenet is an underanalyzedcomponentof the differencesamong these media.
With almost three decades of social science researchon
sexual violence in pornography,
many of its characteristics
conare now well understood.We know that pornography
tains images of both violence and sexual violence (Palys,
1986; Scott & Cuvelier,1993; Smith, 1976). We have some
idea of the negativeeffect of sexually violent pornography,
especially on men's attitudes towards women (Allen,
D'alessio, & Brezgel, 1995; Brannigan & Goldenberg,
1987; Fisher & Grenier, 1994; Linz, 1989; Malamuth&
Check, 1985; Mayerson& Taylor,1987).
Unfortunately,however, the vast majority of previous
researchon sexualviolence in pornography approached
has
mass with regardsto
pornographyas an undifferentiated
sexual violence. This study seeks to determine if this
assumption is justified. Does pornographydiffer across
media? In what ways, and to what degree?How can these
differencesbe explained?These are the primaryquestions
of concernto this paper.We begin our inquiryby reviewing
the
and
past efforts to understand content of pornography,
then presentsome tentativehypothesesconcerningthe levels of sexual violence across media. Throughan empirical
investigation of three contemporaneous pornographic
media-magazines, videos, and Internetnewsgroups (the
Usenet)-we discuss differences in violent content, and
speculateaboutsome of the possible explanationsfor these
differences.
THECONTENT PORNOGRAPHY
OF
Most social and behavioralscience researchon pornography has studied either the effects of pornographic
images
on viewers, or examined the content of the pornography
itself. (As our empirical analysis focuses only on the
changing content of pornography,we have confined our
Addresscorrespondence MichaelKimmel,Department Sociology,SUNY
to
of
at StonyBrook,StonyBrook,NY 11794-4356;
e-mail:michael.kimmel@sunysb.edu.
review of the literatureto that branch of the research.)
Although Smith (1976) found remarkable
homogeneity in
his sample of "adult-only"paperbacks, Malamuth and
Spinner(1980) found increasingviolence in their study of
Playboy and Penthouseover a 5-year period,from approximately 1.5%of all pictorialsfor both magazinesin 1973 to
6% in Penthouseand 4% in Playboy in 1977.
The debate surrounding
these studies generatedimportantadditionalresearch.Scott and Cuvelier(1987a, 1987b)
disaggregatedthe two magazinesand examinedthem over
a longertime span,to eliminatethe possibilitythatthe original studies had conflated them and examined an anomalous period.They founda curvilinear
between
relationship
year and sexual violence, from virtuallyno violence in its
earliest years, with increasesuntil the late 1970s (the endpoint for the study by Malamuth& Spinner, 1980), when
the violent content began to subside. It appears that
Playboy responded to the proliferationof more violent
of
magazinesand the introduction videotapesby returning
to its traditional,more economically affluent and upscale
consumeristreadership.
Criticized for methodological synecdoche-letting
Playboy standfor all pornographic
magazines,especially at
a time of proliferation-Scott and Cuvelier (1993) examined sexual violence in Hustler from its inception (July
1974) throughJuly 1987. While they found a higher level
of violent content(1.6% of all pictorials)in Hustlerthanin
Playboy (.038%) overall, they found no changes in the
magazineover time, and arguedthattheirwork "refutesthe
alleged increase in sexually violent portrayals"(Scott &
Cuvelier, 1993, p. 367).
Other researchersused more synchronic approaches.
Winick (1985), for example, examined 430 pornographic
magazinesfound in an adultbookstorein New YorkCity's
TimesSquare.
Afterclassifyingthese magazinesinto 22 catWinickfoundthat4.9%of the magazinesexamined
egories,
were dedicated to bondage and discipline, while violent
The Journal of Sex Research Volume 37, Number 2, May 2000: pp. 161-168
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161

3. 162
Sexual Violence in Pornography
content accountedfor only 1.2% of his sample. However,
lack of reliabilityof the sample (Winickonly went into one
store) and coding validity (all coding was done on the
premises)makehis findingsless useful to otherresearchers.
The rapid developmentof video technology revolutionized the pornography
industry.The rentalof pornographic
movies rose from75 million in 1985 to 490 million in 1992
sexu(Schlosser,1997). Researchfollowed suit. Comparing
in "Triple-X"
al aggression
videos and in more mainstream
"adult" videos, Palys (1986) found virtually no differences-6.6% of the scenes from adult videos and 6.4% of
the scenes from Triple-X videos containedsexual aggression-but enormous differences between pornographic
videos and pornographic
magazines (where 1% was more
videos has
typical). Virtuallyevery study of pornographic
found similarlevels of sexual violence, substantially
higher
than in magazines (see, for example, Brosius, Weaver,&
Staab, 1993; Duncan, 1991;Yang& Linz, 1990).
Little researchhas been done on pornographyand the
Usenet (Internetnewsgroups), although it has become a
very controversial topic. One study (Rimm, 1995) was
both methodologically and ethically suspect-supplemental data were collected from an adult bulletin board
(which requiresa credit card and age verification to use)
and surreptitiously from students using the Usenet
(DeLoughry,1995; Elmer-Dewitt, 1995). Other,less typical forms of pornography-from pornographiccartoons
(Matacin & Burger, 1987) to dial-a-porn recordings
(Glascock & Larose, 1993)- have also been examined.
These studies tend to underscorethe fact that all pornographic media contain violence, and that each displays
violence differently.
Only one study has attemptedto comparepornographic
media.Dietz andSears(1988) examinedbooks, magazines,
and films in adultbookstoresin four cities. They foundthat
12%of the magazines,20% of the books, and 7.7% of the
films portrayedsome violent theme. While this study proposed the reverse in the amountof violence in magazines
and videos, Dietz and Sears only examinedthe covers and
being investigated,theredisplayboxes of the pornography
the
makingit impossibleto understand actualcontentof
by
the material(see Linz & Donnerstein,1988).
havethusbeen sugStudiesof the contentof pornography
at best, but beset by both substantiveand methodgestive
ological problems that make reliability questionableand
on
impossible.Only the research the effectsof
comparability
on men's attitudesand behaviorshave yielded
pornography
results.We still know
anyreliable,albeitoftencontradictory,
little aboutthe differencesin the actualcontentof pornogramedia. This study is an
phy among various pornographic
of
to remedythis seriouslacunain ourunderstanding
attempt
We
the contentof pornography. provide a careful methodmedia
to
pornographic
ological procedure comparedifferent
the
to ascertain differinglevels of violence.
The introductionof these differentpornographicmedia
at different historical moments (with magazines being
introducedfirst, followed by videos, and then the Usenet)
offers several intriguingpossibilities that might affect the
differing amountsof violence we might find within them.
Violent content might remain constant across all three
media. Levels of violence might increase in a linear way,
moving from low (magazines) to intermediate(videos) to
higher (Usenet). Or it might decrease in a linear way.
Finally, the relationshipmight be curvilinear,with either
a peak or trough in the middle. Given that previous
research found a significant increase in level of violence
between magazines and videos, we hypothesized that a
constant level, decrease, or curvilinear (trough) model
was unlikely. The plausible relationships in which we
were interestedwere thatthe level of violence would continue to increase from videos to the Usenet, or that it
would decline from videos to the Usenet. At the same
time, we wanted to retest the relationshipbetween magazines and videos.
METHODOLOGY
Our sample of magazines and videos was drawn from a
New Yorktownship.The populationof this subsuburban
urb is predominantly
white and middle class. We collected
media. The
50 cases from each of the three pornographic
unique natureof each media, however,necessitatedslightly differentsamplingschemesfor each medium.Videos and
magazines were chosen througha multilevel cluster sampling design. For both media, pornographywas operationalizedas being any sexually explicit materialto which
to
access was limited, eitherby signs or physical structure,
adults. At each of five stores, 10 videos were randomly
selectedto comprisethe video sample.(See AppendixA for
list of films.) Because the majorityof stores selling pornographic magazines did not sell 10 different magazines, 5
magazineswere selected fromfive differentstores,and two
stories were randomlytakenfrom within each magazineto
compriseour magazinesample. (See AppendixB for a list
of magazines.)
Our Usenet sample was confined to stories taken from
the newsgroupalt.sex.stories.It is importantto remember
that the Usenet portionof the Internetis only one portion
of what is considered the Internet,and only one way to
access pornographyvia the Internet.We decided to concentrate on this portion for several reasons. First, it provides a convenientdata pool. While the WorldWide Web
has certainly caught the public's eye more than newsgroups, there is virtually no way to constructa list of all
pornographicweb sites from which to sample. Further,
while some pornographicweb sites contain stories, the
majorityprimarilycontain pictures, and thus do not provide the narrativeelements importantto this study. We
used alt.sex.stories precisely for its narrative content.
material
Finally, while many web sites with pornographic
have begun to charge for access, the Usenet remainsfree
to all with access to the Internet.
The samplingpopulationfor this study was made up of
all sexual stories of at least 250 words posted to the
newsgroup during one month in 1997 (approximately
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4. 163
Barron and Kimmel
28% of the postings for this month fit this description).
From this population, a random sample of 50 cases was
drawn.1
Coding Scheme
The unit of analysis within each story (textual or visual)
was the scene. We used Palys' (1986) definitionas "a thematically uninterruptedsequence of activity in a given
physical context" (p. 25). Each scene was examined for
sexual and/orviolent content. Coders were provideda list
of specific violent acts (see Table 1) and recordedwhether
each scene containedeach particularact and, if the scene
did containthat act, the sex of both the person performing
the violent act and the victim. Coders only measuredthe
presenceof the behavior.They were not instructedto measure the numberof time it occurredwithin a scene or the
intensityof that occurrence.
Table 1 is dividedinto 4 violence strata(indicatedby the
spacing between categories). These divisions were made
duringdata analysis by placing the individualviolent acts
in a roughlyhierarchical
orderandmakinglogical divisions
among them.
In addition to examining specific violent acts, coders
were instructed to identify the sex of the participants;
whethereach was in a dominant,submissive,or ambiguous
to
power position;and whethereach appeared be a consenor nonconsensualparticipant.
sual, coerced,
Two points are important note here. First, no attempt
to
was made to measurethe level of intensitycontainedin any
violent act. Thus specific instances of the same
particular
violent act may vary in intensity.While this is true for all
forms of violence examined,it is especially noteworthyfor
those forms of violence that are more "culturallyritualized," such as verbal aggression, slapping/spanking,and
all
confine/bondage, of which oscillate betweenwhatmight
be consideredlight and heavy violence.
Five coders were employed to code the 150 cases. Four
were undergraduate
volunteers,and the fifth was one of the
authors. Two of the coders were male and three were
female. All were white and had some social science background, and all completed an extensive training seminar
priorto participating.
Reliability
Ten percent of our sample was coded by two different
coders in order ascertain intercoder reliability. Cohen's
Kappa Coefficient was computed for each of these cases
and their recode. This measureof associationprovidesthe
percent agreementbetween coders rescaled to correct for
chance. The averageKappaCoefficientfor the 15 recoded
cases was .8302.
RESULTS
The amount of sexual violence found in our sample is
shown in Table 2. The first row aggregatesthe individual
types of violence to give a summaryof the percentageof
scenes containing any violence, while each subsequent
row summarizesthe percentageof scenes containingparticularforms of sexual violence.2
Table 1. Violence Categories
Violence category
Verbalaggression
Table 2. Percentage of Scenes Containing Sexual Violence
by Media
Pushing, shoving
Type of violence
Being rough in an otherwise "normal"
activity
24.8
Any violence
Verbal aggression
7.6
Rough in otherwise normal activity 2.9
7.6
Pushing, shoving
Pinch
1.0
Pull hair/biting
4.8
Threaten with weapon
0.0
Open hand punch (i.e., slap, spank) 4.8
Choke 0.0 0.8 0.7 0.86 Punch/kick
1.9
5.7
Confine, bondage
1.0
Weapon
1.0
Torture, mutilation
0.0
Attempted/actual murder
Pulling hair/ biting
Pinching
Open hand punch (e.g. slap, spank)
Threatenwith weapon
Choking
Closed fist punch or kick
Confine, bondage
Use weapon on victim
Torture,mutilation
Attempted,actual murder
Magazinea Videob Usenetc
26.9
12.6
4.1
3.8
3.8
8.0
0.8
9.3
0.8
2.7
1.6
0.3
0.0
42.1
15.0
10.0
3.6
2.1
3.6
9.3
8.6
2.1
25.7
15.7
8.6
1.4
X2
12.83**
3.11
8.48*
3.06
2.79
3.83
31.72**
2.23
1.70
69.59**
48.17**
32.01**
6.72*
n = 105. bn = 364. Cn = 140.
* p <.05. **
p< .001.
While the pornographic
videos and magazineswe sampledmay be nationwe
ally distributed, sampledonly those availablein this one area. However,the
Usenet, by design, allows users in many differentcountries to access the same
material,with only language restriction.Thus the generalizabilityof these findings for the Usenet may be far greaterthan the findings for the other media. On
the other hand, little researchhas addressedthe geographicvariationsin pornographiccontent,and thereis some evidence that suggests a greatvariation(Dietz
& Sears, 1988). Care should thereforebe taken in generalizingthese results to
other geographiclocales.
2
Thirty-sixscenes (5.6% of all scenes) containedviolence but not sex. Since
the majorityof the theoreticalliterature the harmof violence in pornography
on
has focused on sexual violence not violence per se, these scenes are not included
in our subsequentanalysis. Also included is the row's chi-square score. Chisquaretests the null hypothesisthat thereis no associationbetween the presence
of a particular
form of violence and media. Thus, a significantchi-squareindicates that thereis an associationbetween media and presenceof violence.
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5. 164
SexualViolence Pornography
in
Accordingto our findings, the Usenet is most likely to
containviolence by a wide, and statisticallysignificant(2 =
10.34, df = 1, p < .0025), margin.Videos containthe second
highest proportionof violent scenes, followed closely by
magazines.However,while the videos in this sample containeda higherpercentage violence thanmagazines,these
of
differenceswere not statisticallysignificantat the .05 level.
Althoughthe differencebetweenmediain the percentageof
cases containing any violence is statistically significant,
more than half of the differences in individual violence
items were not statisticallysignificant.The majorityof statistically significantdifferences occur in the most violent
stratum,with one statisticallysignificantform of violence
occurringin each of the otherthreestrata.
Table 3 illustratesthe percentageof scenes containing
violence in particular
strataby medium.The row variables
andextreme)arederivedfromdichoto(low, medium,high,
mous variablesrepresentingthe presence (or absence) of
violence from thatstratum.
Thus, any scene containingany
verbal aggression, being rough in an otherwise normal
activity,or pushing/ shoving would be coded as containing
violence in the low stratum.
Note thatforbothmagazinesandvideos,violencedecreases in a monotonic
fashion. violencebecomesmoreintense,
As
or extreme,fewerscenes containit. Forbothmedia,approxilow
mately 15%of scenes contained intensityviolence.Both
have fewer scenes with mediumintensityviolence (roughly
13%),fewer still with high intensityviolence (roughly5%),
andveryfew scenes withextremeviolence(2%).Differences
between magazinesand videos were not significantat a =
.05. The Usenet,however,does not follow such a linearpattern.Most of the violencein Usenetnewsgroup
pornography
falls into the low andhigh categories,while the mediumand
extremecategoriescontainslightlyless violence.Forall straof
ta, a higherpercentage scenesfromthe Usenetcontainviolence (the differencesbetweenthe Usenet and the othertwo
media combinedare statisticallysignificantat the a = .05
level for all strata
exceptmedium).
When we examined the level of violence from more to
less recenttechnology, we also found that the Usenet contains more coercive and less consensual sex in the scenes
depicted. Over one fourth (26.4%) of scenes from the
Usenet contain coercive or nonconsensual sex, followed
by videos and magazines (4.9% and 4.8% respectively).
While we can again note the Usenet-video-magazinepattern,the differencebetween magazineand video is not significant
(X2 =
.006, df = 1, p = .939).
Table 3. Sexual Violence in Scenes by Strata
Low
Medium
High
Extreme
Magazinea
14.3%
9.5
6.7
an = 105. bn = 364. Cn = 140.
*p < .001.
Videob
Usenetc
16.5%
15.4
4.4
1.9 1.
23.6%
17.1
26.4
117.1
x2
4.51
3.03
56.72*
48.76*
When we examined the question of power in sexual
relationships,we again find thatthe Usenet differsdramatically from the other media. While the majorityof scenes
in magazines and videos contained neither dominantnor
submissive participants(i.e., portrayedegalitariansexual
relations,with 69.5% and 80.8%respectively),only 49.3%
of Usenet scenes did. The difference between magazine
and video here is significant(egalitarian
sex, X2= 6.055, df
= 1, p= .014).
Whenthese powerpositionsaredisaggregated gender
by
an interestingpatternemerges. Table4 shows power positions brokendownby gender.Percentagesarefor all scenes
containingthat type of power position; thus, of all magazine scenes containinga participantin a dominantpower
position, 9.7% of those scenes have a male in the dominant
power position. (The percentageof males and females in a
given power position in a given medium do not add to
100%,because some scenes containtwo people of opposite
sexes maintaining same power position.)
the
Two thingsare worthnotinghere.First,while videos and
the Usenetfollow the expectedgenderrole patterns
(woman
are more often submissive,men are more often dominant),
in the magazines dominantpower positions are virtually
always held by women.At the same time, men are twice as
likely to be in the submissiveposition as women. Second,
across all media both sexes are shown relativelyfrequently
in both dominantand submissiveroles (with, perhaps,the
exceptionof dominantmen in magazines).This suggests a
greaterlevel of fluidity of dominanceand submissionthan
some theories,which hold that these images always accuratelymirrorgenderstereotypes,might have predicted.
We thenturnedto an examination the victims andperof
of violence. Where violence occurs it is dispropetrators
causedby men in Usenet scenes. Men makeup
portionately
a smallerpercentageof aggressorsin video scenes, and an
even smaller percentage in magazines. In magazines,
38.5%of sexually violent scenes had male perpetrators
and
65.4% had female perpetrators.
However,in videos 60.2%
of the sexually violent scenes had male perpetrators
and
49% of the scenes had female perpetrators. the Usenet
In
and
sample62.7%of the scenes had male perpetrators only
42.4% of the scenes had female perpetrators.
(Again, since
a scene can containperpetrators both sexes, the percents
of
do not sum to 100.) It is worth noting that magazines not
of
only have a greatergender differencein the perpetrator
violence than the other two media, but they also display
women inflicting violence more often then men.
Table 4. Percentage of Scenes Containing Nonegalitarian
Sex by Sex of Participant and Media
Videob
Magazinea
Male Female
Dominant
Submissive
Male
Female
9.7
74.2
74.2
26.5
33.3
77.9
93.5
35.5
Usenetc
Male Female
68.6
16.2
41.4
85.3
an = 31 (dominant), n = 31 (submissive). bn = 70 (dominant), n = 68
(submissive).Cn= 66 (dominant),n = 68 (submissive).
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6. 165
Barron and Kimmel
The opposite gender relationshipis expressedwhen we
examine the victims of the violence. In magazines,50% of
the sexuallyviolent scenes hadmale victims,and61.5%had
female victims. Percentages may not add up to 100%
becausethe same scene may have had morethanone victim
of the violence. In the videos, 32.7%of the scenes depicted
male victims, comparedwith 79.6%of the scenes depicting
female victims. And on the Usenet, 23.7% of the scenes
depictedmale victims and 84.7% of the scenes had female
victims.As we can see, the victims of violence in pornography are far more frequentlyfemale: Over 61 percentage
points separatemales and females at the extreme(Usenet),
and 11.5 percentagepoints (magazines)is as close as the
sexes come to parity.Magazines,which showedthe greatest
of
gender differencein terms of perpetrators violence, are
the most egalitarian termsof the victims of violence.
in
Finally, we turnto the issue of consensual sex together
with violence. To whatextentwere victims of violence consensual participants?
What we found here was surprising.
The vast majority of violence in magazines and videos
occurs in the context of a consensualrelationship.In magazines, 88.5% of the violence was depicted as consensual,
comparedwith 3.8% as coercive and 7.7% as nonconsensual. In the videos, 91.8% of the violence was depicted as
consensual,5.1% as coercive, and 3.1% as nonconsensual.
On the Usenet, however,42.4% was depictedas consensual, while 10.2% was coercive and 47.5% was depicted as
nonconsensual.Thus, less than half of the Usenet scenes
that contained violence were consensual, statisticallydifferent from both magazines and videos (x2= 51.38, df = 2,
p< .001).
DISCUSSION
Our resultsclearly demonstrate
differinglevels of violence
media.Whattypes of theoretamongthe threepornographic
ical argumentswould explain these differences?Although
we cannotconclusivelypointto any single theoretical
trend,
we outlinesome of the possible interpretations the differof
ent levels, and offer some evaluation those explanations.
of
Several differences among the differentmedia must be
factored into the explanation.Magazines, videos, and the
Usenet represent
threedifferenthistorical"moments" the
in
of erotic representation,
from the 1950s and 1960s
history
(the rise of mass-marketmagazines), to the 1970s and
1980s (the dramaticexplosion of videotapes),to the current
era, in which the Usenet (and the Interet in general) has
emergedas one of the most versatileand accessible venues
for pornography.
This historicalprogressionalso illustrates
the increasing "democratization" pornographicmedia.
of
As new technologies (video, telephone, computer, etc.)
have been adaptedto pornography, cost of production
the
has dropped and control of production has diffused.
Successful pornographicmagazines require massive production and distributionrequirements,making them the
provinceof media elites. For example, while Hugh Hefner
began Playboy with a initial investmentof only $600 in
1953 (Leerhsen, 1986), a magazine start-up today can
require as much as $20 million-the amount needed by
JohnF. KennedyJr.to inaugurate
George (Handy,1995).
Adult videos, which became the preferred
pornographic
medium during the mid-1980s, are far less expensive to
producethanmagazines.A typical adultfeaturecan cost as
little as $3,000 (Schlosser, 1997). The relatively inexpensive productionprice of videos, comparedto magazines,
has allowedfor an enormousupsurgein both the numberof
videos and the numberof
producerscreatingpornographic
featuresmade each year.
The Usenet offers the greatestaccess to the largestnumber of users at the least expense:One need only have a computer,a telephoneline, and access to the Interet to enterits
pornographicworld. Usenet pornographyproduction is
also unique in that there is complete individualownership
of the means of production.Magazineproductionrequires
large printing presses as well as numerous specialized
employees (typesetters,graphicartists,etc.). Video production requirescameras,lighting, sound systems, duplication
equipment,and people to run them. Usenet pornography
productionrequiresnothing more than a computer,a telephone line, and an imagination.
In addition,pornographic
magazinesaredependentupon
which may requirethe magazine to mute the
advertising,
violent content to express a more mainstreamassociation
with erotica and high-end consumerism.Videos and the
Usenet are less dependentupon advertising,and may actuThis independence,coupled with
ally eschew it altogether.
the lower costs of productionand distribution,
means that
in
many of the participants the Usenet world are as much
creatorsof pornographyas they are consumers of it. We
believe thatthis blurringof the lines betweenconsumerand
creatorcontains some threadsof explanationthat may be
worthexploring.
Democratization led to an increasein violent scenes
has
from magazines to videos to the Usenet, with the largest
increase in violence in the move between videos and the
Usenet. Perhapsthis is the illustration nothingmore than
of
notions of addictionworking themsimple psychological
selves out on an aggregate scale. We might expect, for
example, thatjust as individualconsumersof pornography
tend to tire of a certainlevel of explicitnessand need more,
so, too, would the market,actingas an individual.
Thus, the
more pornography consumedat one level, the less arousis
ing this materialbecomes, as the consumerbecomes used
to-satiated with-the material. This satiation leads the
consumerto seek out newer,moreexplicit,andmoreviolent
forms of sexual material that will again arouse him/her
(Russell, 1993; Zillmann& Bryant, 1984). Thus we might
expect that as new pornographic
technologiesemerge, one
will find themincreasinglyviolent,becausethey must satisfy both the demand previously satisfied and an increased
demandfor even more.
Such an explanation,however,can take us only so far in
termsof the historicalsequenceof pornographic
form. Our
second finding concernedthe differing content of the victim and victimizer among the three media, and this differ-
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7. 166
Sexual Violence in Pornography
ence could not be explainedby a simple addictionmodel.
We found that the Usenet shows men in dominantpositions, as victimizerandnot victim, in far greaterproportion
thando magazinesandvideos, which is also suggestivethat
democratization pornography increasedboththe vioof
has
lence and the amountof misogyny-women as victimscontainedin the images. Such a finding confirms some of
the arguments
offeredby radicalfeministcritics of pornography: that pornographyillustrates a universal misogyny
and that its function in male supremacist society is to
eroticize male supremacy, to ". . . keep sexism sexy."
(Stoltenberg,1989, p. 129; see also MacKinnon,1987).
radicalfeminist critics often tend to treat
Unfortunately,
pornographyas an undifferentiatedwhole, a monolith,
ratherthan as a set of diverse and often competinggenres.
Theircritiqueis not
... presentedagainst the backgroundof any attemptto analyze
into
pornography differentforms,some cateringfor morepeculiar
perversionsand some not, some concerned with women, some
is
wholly directedtowardshomosexualmen. Pornography treated
as simply an individual phenomenon . . . (Simpson, 1983, p.71)
How, then, can we explain not only the increasing violence in the progression of pornographicmedia but also
the qualitativedifference in the depiction of victims and
victimizers between the Usenet, on the one hand, and
magazines and videos on the other?We believe that several specific elements of the Usenet tailor it for a particular type of pornographic representation.As we noted
above, it is more democratic,with greatermass access and
far less dependence on commercial advertisers. It is as
close as one can get to men's3direct expressions of their
own fantasies, unconstrainedby the demands of the marketplace or the high costs of producing and distributing
those fantasies to others.
More than this, though, these Internetnewsgroups are
the closest things to the all-male locker room that exist in
world:A world, in a sense, entirelywiththe pornographic
out women, a world in which men control absolutely all
facets of the scene and in which women do not insertthemselves as corporealbeings, even in the highly stylizedforms
offered by magazinesor videos. Any adequateexplanation
of the increasedviolence and the shifting relationshipsof
victims and victimizers, then, must take into account the
homosocialelementin
distinctly,purely,and uncorruptedly
the Internetnewsgroup.
Surely,this homosocial element has been noted before.
After all, most pornographyis producedby men andfor
men; it is in this sense about masculinity(see, for example,
Kimmel, 1990; Kimmel & Linders, 1997). If, as Kimmel
argued, pornographyis "genderedspeech," it provides a
communicativesystem among and between men.
3
of
it
Unfortunately, is virtuallyimpossible to know what proportion Usenet
is
pornography producedor consumedby women.We believe thatthe vast majority of producersand consumersare male. Howeverwe have no hardevidence to
supportthis and, if incorrect,our explanationfor differences in violent content
would be weakenedsignificantly.
This homosocial element-men communicating with
other men using a particularly
genderedspeech-has been
absentfrommost empiricaldiscussionsof porogralargely
phy and its impact, in part because of the surface level
"reading"that pornographyis about men's relationships
with women.Yet with the Usenet, the relationship
between
and consumeris so blurredas to become nonexisproducer
tent.And perhapswhat is differentbetween the Usenet and
the otherpornographic
media is thatthe apparent
collusion
between producerand consumeris broken.Magazine and
video producersenterinto at least a tacit alliancewith consumers.This is necessitatedby the pornography
producer's
desire for profits, and the pornography
consumer'sdesire
for arousal.No such alliance exists between the producers
and consumersof Usenet pornography least not those
(at
who have continued to produce pornography free of
charge).Perhapswhatthe Usenet offers is homosocialcomamongmen in whichthe sexualvicpetition-a relationship
timizationof women is a currencyamong men, used as a
way to facilitateupwardmobilityin a masculinehierarchy.
Bird (1996) argues that homosociality is vital to the
maintenanceof hegemonic masculinity,acting to institusegregatemen andwomen, and
tionallyandinterpersonally
also acting to suppressnonhegemonicmasculinities.Three
characteristicsof hegemonic masculinity are crucial to
and
Bird's conceptualization, may suggest some of the elements of an adequateexplanationof our findings:
(a) emotional detachment,a meaning constructedthroughrelationshipswithin families wherebyyoung men detachthemselves
from mothers and develop gender identities in relation to that
which they are not (Chodorow, 1978); (b) competitiveness, a
meaning constructedand maintainedthroughrelationshipswith
other men whereby simple individuality becomes competitive
individuality(Gilligan, 1982); and (c) sexual objectificationof
women, a meaningconstructedand maintainedthroughrelationship with other men whereby male individualityis conceptualized not only as differentfrom female but as better than female
(Johnson, 1988). (Bird, 1996, p. 121)
found on Internetnewsgroups
Perhapsthe pornography
violent thanmagazine and video pornogis so much more
raphypreciselybecauseof the homosocialcompetitionthat
and
exists betweenindividualproducers betweenproducers
and consumers. Internet pornography,particularly the
newsgroup stories used in this study, is written by men
abouttheirfantasies,and is intendedfor othermen to read
The producersof this
considerations.
without marketplace
are freed from formalmarketconstraintsand,
pornography
therefore, participatein an informal masculinist marketplace, competingwith othermen in an effort to prove who
can "do the most. ...,"
. . ," and so on.
"last the longest," "have the biggest
Violence againstwomen is thus a currencyamong men
as theyjockey for positionin the eyes of othermen. This is,
of
of course,facilitatedby the sexualobjectification women
discussed by Bird (1996). The Usenet contains producers
andconsumerswho areno less a social groupbecause their
takeplace in virtualspace.They have theirown
interactions
We
norms,values, symbols, and modes of interaction. sug-
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8. 167
Barronand Kimmel
conducive to
gest here that this social group is particularly
the hegemonicmasculinitythatpromoteshomosocial comproducers.
petitionamong pornography
Neither magazinenor video pornography
suggests such
a relationship between producer and consumer. Indeed,
constrained by the formal marketplace,magazines and
videos promote homosocial collusion between producer
and consumer.It is in the best interestof pornography
producers from these media to provide their consumerswith
the most arousingmaterialpossible.The lines betweenconsumersand producersis clear and well defined,thus facilicollusion. By contrast,the boundaries
tating their apparent
and consumeron the Usenet are blurred;
between produce
consumersare producersand vice versa.
This collusion between producer and consumer helps
explain the minor variations between videos and magazines. As we have noted, in most aspects videos and magazines are not significantlydifferent.The homosocial competition model predicts this, since producers of these
forms are tryingto maximize theirprofitsby
pornographic
the most arousingmaterialto the largestproporproviding
tion of consumers.This shouldbe possible since hegemonic masculinity(and feminist theory)both suggest that men
will tend to find the same materialarousing.Marketplace
in
adjustments the amountof violent materialcontainedin
would, therefore,eventuallystabilize at relapornography
levels.
tively equal
Of course, hegemonic masculinity is not absolute.
Variationson the dominant masculine identity do exist.
consumerswould
Hence, certainsegmentsof pornography
not be served by the homogenous pornography
produced
according to the demands of a hegemonic definition.
Instead,microlevelvariationswould appearin some forms
of pornographyin an attempt to tap these consumers.
are
However,these microvariations just that-small scale.
fromthe hegemonicideal still conformto its genVariations
eral ideology.Hence, women in magazinescan be shown as
causing violence, but they still are shown as sufferingviolence more often thanmen.
CONCLUSION
This article has providedthe first systematic and methodologically coherentcomparisonamong threecontemporary
media.We foundnot only increasinglevels of
pornographic
violence as we moved from one medium to the next, but
also a dramaticshift from magazinesand videos on the one
hand and the Usenet on the other when we examinedboth
level of violence and the gender of victim and victimizer.
While we offeredno definitiveexplanationof these results,
we suggestedthatexplanationsthatstressedsimple democratization,
psychologicaladdiction,or misogyny were inadto fully explain our results. We have therefore
equate
offered a sketch of a model that might explain the differences among these media by virtue of homosocial competition. This places the changinglevels of violence within a
contextof men's relationswith each other,and in theirconstantand ceaseless efforts to prove theirmasculinityin the
eyes of other men. The changes in violent content among
media, then, has more to do with the definition of hegemonic masculinitythanit does with technologicalproliferation and democratization, or with the psychological
propensityto requiregreaterand greaterthrillsbefore satiation. Contraryto radical feminist theory, though, these
changes in pornographymay say more about men's relationships with other men than they do about men's relationships with women. One potentiallyfruitful avenue of
furtherresearchwould be an examinationof commercial
these sites operate
sites. Presumably,
Internetpornography
under marketconstraintssimilar to those experiencedby
magazinesand videos and, therefore,would experiencethe
same collusion between producerand consumerleading to
similarratesof violence. Only furtherresearchwill be able
to demonstratethe continued utility of this homosocial
competitionexplanationof the changingviolent contentof
over differentmedia and over time.
pornography
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APPENDIX
A
VIDEOSIN THESAMPLE
The following videos comprise the sample reviewedby this study:
All Little Women
Damp Spot
AmateurA Cuppers
Danish HardCore 104
Anal Mystique
Dirty Dozen #67
Anal Persuasion
Ebony Experience
Anal Playground
Eros Extreme
AnaltownUSA #3
Filthy Fuckers#60
Asses Galore
Girls who Love it Ass Backwards
Bad Attitude
Hidden Obsession
Bad Girls #2
Impact
Bad Girls #5
Jizz and Tonic
Because I can
Junkyard
Dogs
Bisexual Anal
Kink-o-Rama
Buttfucker#3
PleasureZone #22
Butt Banged Bicycle Babes
Plum and Dumber
Call #18
PrivateProfits
Casting
Cum in my Holes
Sex Freaks
Sex Spa
CummingClean
Snakedance
SpunkSuckers
Strapon Sally #9
SuperDiamond Double XX #6
SuperTramp
SuperstarSex Challenge#1
The Big One
Tits a WonderfulLife
TotallyNaked
UFO Tracker
Up and Cummers#32
Upbeat Love
Wall to Wall #33
White Chicks #13
WickedWomen
Zane's World
APPENDIX
B
MAGAZINES THESAMPLE
IN
The following magazines were comprise the sample reviewedby this study:
40 +
Girlsa
Adult Cinema Review
Girls of Penthouse
Asian Beauties
GrahamCrackera
Busts
Hot Buns
Big
Skina
Hot Stuff
Celebrity
Club Confidential
Just Eighteen
College Girlsa
Kinky Babesa
ConfidentialLetters
Leg Action
ILegSex
Dirty
ILiveNude Girls
D-Cup
OriginalPorn Starsa
Panthera
Penthouse
PenthouseLetters
Playboya
Playboy Playmatesa
Playgirl
Portfolioa
Ragea
Dollyb
ILovers in Heata
Ravers
Score
Family Fun
Gallery
rqugget
Turn-ons
a contained
no stories
btext
not in English
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